it to the police. I knew if I could get Jared locked up, it would provide me the chance to escape.” She shook her head. “I waited too long, wanting to be sure my proof was solid enough. I knew the two of them would hire the best lawyers. I wanted to be rid of Jared. I didn’t want to take the chance of them getting off. Xavier has less patience and isn’t the sort of man to tolerate being blackmailed. He took Jared down and set me up.”
Alex patted the black file. “This is the information Jared was using against Xavier?”
“Part of it. I think there has to be more, but I’ve been unable to find it. As soon as it was determined Jared was murdered, the police confiscated his computer.” She offered a small shrug. “I don’t think they’ll find much on it. I never did. I think he was afraid if he stored information on the hard drive, Xavier would find a way to hack into his system. The files in the binder are off a Jumpdrive.”
“Where is the Jumpdrive now?” Alex asked.
Claire shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. About a week before he was killed, it disappeared. He’d been keeping it in his desk drawer. Maybe he realized I was onto him.”
“You don’t think the information you have is enough to put Xavier away?”
“At this point, he could claim Jared was the front man. What if Xavier walks? It would be like kicking a hornets’ nest.”
“He’s already after you.”
“I thought he only wanted to frame me.” She pulled in a breath. “After your phone call with Beth, he knows I’m onto him. If her line really was tapped—and judging by the appearance of the men last night, it seems likely—he would’ve heard her say I knew I was framed, that I was searching for evidence. I don’t think framing me is enough anymore. I think he wants me dead. If he knows I’m looking for evidence, he’ll do anything in his power to stop me.”
Alex knew she wasn’t exaggerating. The gunmen at the cabin attested to that.
“What’s your game plan?” he asked. “You said you’ve been doing research the past few weeks. What are you looking into?”
“It goes back to that first conversation. I thought jobs were on the line. I didn’t realize lives were on the line.” Her fingers tapped listlessly against her thighs. “Jared said Xavier terminated someone who got in his way. Terminated. Past tense.”
“Meaning it wasn’t a threat, but something he’d already carried out.”
“Yes.” Claire frowned. “I’ve looked up every name in this file.”
“You only have a list of buyers.”
“Right.”
“Any of them dead?” The question was blunt but necessary.
“No.”
“So chances are,” Alex said as he thought it over, “if Xavier took someone else out, it was a middle man. Maybe someone in charge of sales.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Claire agreed. “Maybe even a competitor. He probably made it look like an accident.”
“Like he tried to do with Jared?”
A grim look settled on Claire’s face. “That was the initial report. Jared had a gash on the back of his head. I assumed he’d tripped and hit his head on the edge of the pool. When the emergency responders first arrived, they seemed to think so, too. However the autopsy showed there were flecks of paint in the gash. They matched the paint on a lawn statue in our backyard. Whoever killed Jared hit him with the statue before shoving him into the pool. His official cause of death was drowning.”
“But whoever hit him over the head wanted him dead,” Alex finished. “Did they find the statue?”
“The statue was in the garden where it had always been. There were still traces of blood when the investigators came back.”
“No fingerprints?”
She winced. “Only mine. It’s my flower garden.”
“How convenient,” Alex said sourly. “That’s when you became a suspect?”
She nodded. “I was brought in for questioning, but they let me go. I already had my suspicions by then. As soon as I knew Jared had been murdered, I knew Xavier was involved. They questioned him, as well. He told them Jared and I had a troubled marriage. Things went sideways pretty quickly from there.”
“You didn’t tell them you suspected Xavier?” Alex asked.
“Of course I did,” Claire said. “But I don’t think they took my suspicion seriously. One of the detectives asked if I was accusing Xavier out of retaliation because of what he’d said about my marriage to Jared. The information I have regarding the antiquities just as easily points to Jared being the front man. I have no proof that Xavier was dabbling in the black market, let alone that he’s a murderer.
“When I left the station that afternoon, they told me not to leave town.”
“So that’s exactly what you did.” Alex shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like the Claire I knew. You’ve always been a rule follower.”
Her spine stiffened, and she sat straighter. “That’s because the Claire you knew didn’t have a daughter to protect. She’s already growing up without her father. I’m not going to allow her to grow up without her mother.”
“Keep that attitude,” Alex said, refusing to take offense at her words because he knew she didn’t mean for him to. “I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”
“What I need,” Claire said firmly, “is to prove that Xavier really did have someone killed and that Jared knew it. That would give him motive to keep Jared quiet. Permanently.”
“You hit dead ends with the names in the file,” Alex said.
“True. But I know someone who might know something.”
“Yeah?” Alex raised an eyebrow. “Who would that be?”
“Ruth Crenshaw. She was Jared’s secretary. She left a message saying she needed to speak with me. Her message wasn’t detailed but she did say she had information about Jared that could be important,” Claire said. “By the time I got the chance to contact her, she was gone.”
“Gone?”
“She left A & M Inc. after Jared’s funeral. It makes sense. Jared was her boss. Though, to be honest, I think there was more to it than that. She was afraid when she left the message. I could hear it in her voice.”
“How do you know she’s no longer at A & M?”
“After I left, I tried getting in touch with her. I was told she no longer worked there. I asked where she’d gone but I was told they couldn’t give out that information. I found her home phone number but it was disconnected.”
“Do you know where she lives?” Alex asked. He was already reaching for his phone.
“No.
